Penpie Protocol Got exploited : Lost $27 Millions in Funds

Penpei, a protocol built on Pendle, got hacked on September 3 losing $27 Million. This year has brought a whole another level of crypto hacks. Looking at the crypto hacks, it is evident that crypto hackers have become more active this year. Just 8 months into this year and crypto has already lost $1.2 billion to hacks and exploits. Let’s explore the recent hack on Penpie.

The Hack

Around 9 hours ago, an X account Chaofan Shou, affiliated with Fuzzland made a post with an initial information of Penpei protocol getting drained. In its post, the account stated that $17 Million has been hacked, that means even after a user found and posted about the hack, the protocol was not aware of it. This resulted in loss of another $10 million in funds. The lost funds include Ether and stable coins such as USDC and sUSDE. The X account also reported this incident to etherscan, marking a red flag on the address.

Negotiation With Attacker : Bounty Proposed

Penpie in their recent X post have shared a message for the exploiter requesting to return the funds. They said that they are ready for a negotiation and provide a certain percent of the stolen funds as bounty. They also offered the hacker that they will not take any legal action if the funds are returned as Penpie is a community driven protocol. This is an offer for the hacker to turn into a white hat and get rewarded for his skills.

Looking ahead

The year 2024 has witnessed a huge number of crypto hacks. There is a rise of 15.5% in crypto thefts as compared to last year. The FBI issued a public announcement yesterday to alert the crypto ecosystem about the North Korean hackers as they are performing highly tailored social engineering attacks on crypto projects. All these exploits and hacks highlight the need of cutting edge security systems for crypto projects.